China Unicom Free Cash Flow Up by Nearly 30%

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Highlights:

• Service revenue reached RMB 347.7 billion. Net profit^[1] was RMB 20.8 billion. Free cash flow^[2] reached RMB 36.0 billion, representing a year-on-year increase of 28.5%.
• Investment efficiency was enhanced, with annual capital expenditure (CAPEX) amounting to RMB 54.2 billion. CAPEX to service revenue ratio fell to 16%. Looking ahead to 2026, CAPEX is expected to be approximately RMB 50 billion, of which investment in computing power will account for more than 35%.
• The Company has always attached great importance to shareholder returns. The Board of Directors proposed a final dividend^[3] of RMB 0.1329 per share (pre-tax). Together with the interim dividend already paid, the total dividend for the full year of 2025 reached RMB 0.417 per share (pre-tax), representing an increase of 3.1% year-on-year, with the dividend payout ratio increasing to 61.3%.

HONG KONG, March 19, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — China Unicom (Hong Kong) Limited and its subsidiaries (“China Unicom“ or the “Company“) (HKEx: 0762) is pleased to announce today its 2025 annual results.

In 2025, China Unicom adhered to the keynote of “Preserve and Innovate, Steady and Far-Reaching”, making solid strides in high-quality development. Service revenue reached RMB 347.7 billion. Net profit was RMB 20.8 billion. Return on equity^[4] (ROE) reached 5.7%. Free cash flow reached RMB 36.0 billion, representing a year-on-year increase of 28.5%. Corporate governance continued to improve, and the Company was named “Most Honoured Telecommunications Company” by Extel (formerly Institutional Investor) for ten consecutive years. While achieving growth in operating results, the Company attaches great importance to shareholder returns. The Board of Directors proposed a final dividend of RMB 0.1329 per share (pre-tax). Together with the interim dividend already paid, the total dividend for the full year of 2025 reached RMB 0.417 per share (pre-tax), representing an increase of 3.1% year-on-year, with the dividend payout ratio increasing to 61.3%.

Seizing opportunities from the new round of technological and industrial innovation, the Company implemented “AI+” initiatives. Revenue contribution from strategic emerging industries reached over 86%. The computing power business revenue ratio^[5] reached 15.4%, representing an increase of 1.1 percentage points over the previous year. International business revenue recorded a year-on-year increase of over 9%. By deepening co-build co-share and building an ultra-lean network, over RMB 1.3 billion in operating costs were saved annually. Investment efficiency was enhanced, with annual CAPEX amounting to RMB 54.2 billion. CAPEX to service revenue ratio fell to 16%. Looking ahead to 2026, CAPEX is expected to be approximately RMB 50 billion, of which investment in computing power will account for more than 35%.

Total connectivity subscriber scale exceeded 1.2 billion

The Company is committed to improving the breadth and depth of its network coverage. Thanks to the implementation of special initiatives such as “Signal Upgrade” and the deepening of co-build co-share, the Company’s mobile network population coverage rate exceeded 99%, and 5G-A base stations were deployed in more than 330 cities. The Company promoted the capacity expansion of gigabit broadband and the upgrade of 10-gigabit broadband, and launched pre-commercial trial of 10-gigabit optical fibre networks in more than 100 cities. It made deployments in frontier fields such as 6G and quantum communications, and launched quantum-secure leased lines.

The Company actively expanded connectivity scenarios. Its total connectivity subscriber scale^[6] exceeded 1.2 billion, representing an increase of 110 million over the previous year. Among these, the net addition of mobile and broadband subscribers exceeded 20 million. The penetration rate of integrated subscribers exceeded 78% with their ARPU remaining at above RMB 100. The number of IoT connections exceeded 700 million, and the Company consolidated its leading advantage in the Internet of Vehicles (IoV) market. After obtaining the operating permit for satellite mobile communication services, the Company actively promoted the scale development of satellite direct-to-device applications.

AI revenue^[7] increased by 147% year-on-year

The Company is committed to providing faster and more precise computing power services, strengthening its resource buildout at the “Eastern Data, Western Computing” hub nodes and in green computing-power coordination demonstration provinces. The number of standard cabinets^[8] exceeded 1.10 million, seven 100MW-grade AIDC campuses have been built, and the scale of intelligent computing reached 45 EFLOPS. The Company accelerated the construction of the new “Eight Vertical and Eight Horizontal” backbone optical fibre cable network, adding more than 9,000 kilometres to achieve the interconnection of computing power hub nodes. Data centre revenue was RMB 28.1 billion, up by 8.5% year-on-year.

Unicom Cloud is accelerating its evolution towards AI Cloud. The Company deepened hyperscale intelligent cloud-native implementations, enhanced its centralised orchestration and allocation capabilities, and built a new computing power business model of “applications + models + resources”. It supported the construction of government clouds for over 180 provinces and municipalities as well as the digital and intelligent transformation of nearly 400,000 corporate customers. Unicom Cloud revenue^[9] increased by 5.2% year-on-year. The Company established national pilot bases for AI application and launched the UniAI Wanxiang data engineering platform, the UniAI MaaS platform, and the UniAI Wanwu intelligent agent platform. With these platforms, it formed over 400 TB of high-quality datasets, offered over 140 mainstream models, and gathered more than 10,000 developers to help customers rapidly build intelligent agent applications. AI revenue increased by 147% year-on-year.

Cloud-AI products served more than 300 million users

The Company is committed to promoting the integrated innovation of digital technologies such as 5G and AI to create differentiated products. In the consumer market, by creating the smart home hub “UniBOX Tongtong”, the Company continuously enhanced the new experience of digital smart living. Its Cloud-AI products served more than 300 million users, with revenue increasing by over 11% year-on-year. In the government and enterprise market, the Company deeply supported the construction of new industrialisation and digital government. It upgraded its “5G + Industrial Internet” product system, and its Gewu Industrial Internet Platform was consecutively named as a national Class-A cross-industry and cross-domain platform. It strengthened integrated IoV operation, serving more than 95 million vehicles. In the field of digital government, it iterated key products such as economic development platform, AI call centre (AICC), and “Labour Connect” smart governance platform to help enhance the government’s economic regulation, administrative services, and labour governance.

The first and the only enterprise in China to pass the highest-level DSMM accreditation

The Company is committed to building a more robust and stronger security system. It promoted AI-powered security as well as the security of AI, achieving deep integration of artificial intelligence and data security. It was the first and the only enterprise to pass the highest-level accreditation of the national Data Security Maturity Model (DSMM). It built a network security product system around its “Mogong” security operation service platform, providing customised solutions and creating a growth driver for its security business. It also launched the Unicom Security Guardian product, serving 210 million users.